REPORT: Top Universities Failing to Attract High-Achieving, Low-Income Students
According to a new report, the nation’s top Universities are failing to attract high-achieving low-income students.
Despite a widely-stated promise to reach out to these young people, the results show this has not come to fruition.
And this pattern is a major contributor to the vast economic inequality and lack of social mobility plaguing our country.
Many top low-income students instead attend community colleges or four-year institutions closer to their homes, the study found. The students often are unaware of the amount of financial aid available or simply do not consider a top college because they have never met someone who attended one, according to the study’s authors, other experts and high school guidance counselors.
“A lot of low-income and middle-income students have the inclination to stay local, at known colleges, which is understandable when you think about it,” said George Moran, a guidance counselor at Central Magnet High School in Bridgeport, Conn. “They didn’t have any other examples, any models — who’s ever heard of Bowdoin College?”
Whatever the reasons, the choice frequently has major consequences. The colleges that most low-income students attend have fewer resources and lower graduation rates than selective colleges, and many students who attend a local college do not graduate. Those who do graduate can miss out on the career opportunities that top colleges offer.
Thoughts on the results of this study?
How can top Universities do a better job of reaching low-income students?
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